Dale's Entertainment Corner

Ben weider,a legend who turned bodybuilding into a worldwide fitness phenomenon,died overnight in a Montreal hospital.He was 85.Weider and his older brother Joe founded the International Federation of body building in 1940 and spent six decades promoting the sport once "reviled" as a "fringe activity".Beginning in 1947,Ben travelled the world,promoting his sport,organising exhibitions and competitive events.At the height of cold war tensions he courted sports officials of miltantly anti-western regimes in the then-Soviet union and Communist china.The brothers set up fitness centres sold weight lifting equipment and promoted nutritional supplements for body builders.Ben Weider also pushed to have  body-building included in the olympics but it achieved provisional status in 1998.He also co-authoresd one of the best selling history books about napolean,earning him the French Legion of honour for his investigative work into the french leader's death.Next week,a collection of his Napoleonic artefacts are to be unveiled in a permanent Gallery at Montreal Museum of Fine arts.True starin his own right!